October 8, 1999 - Tomorrow is Leif Erikson day in the United States. This year, the date serves as a kick-off for year long celebration marking the millenium of the famous Viking voyage to North America. Norway, Iceland, the United States and Canada are planning events to honor the European who reached the New World almost five hundred years before Columbus. Urn Ardnar is a Counsul for Iceland and is a memeber of the Minnesota Leif Eriksson Millennium Commission of Iceland. He says the biggest event will be next year's re-enactment of the voyage using reproductions of Viking ships.
September 28, 1999 - The people planning the light rail project proposed for Minneapolis and Bloomington settled a design controversay yesterday by deciding the train will go over Lake Street on a bridge rather than cross on the ground. The design for the twelve-mile-long line approved by the Hiawatha Avenue Corridor LRT planning group now goes to the Federal Transit Administration in Washington D. C. The FTA must approve the plan before up to $250 million in federal funds become available.
September 27, 1999 - Hennepin county is being sued over a l990 child protection case where two children were returned to their biological mother who abused them. The youngsters, now nine and ten years old, have been adopted and no longer live with the biological mother. The adoptive parents are suing saying county social workers disregarded and even concealed evidence of the abuse. The county says it concealed nothing and argues the children were not in its custody when the abuse occurred. Minnesota public radio's Dan Olson reports, the federal civil suit may clarify the liability counties face when child protection cases go awry.
September 27, 1999 - To close out the millennium, Minnesota Public Radio's All Things Considered presents a look back at Minnesota life in 1900 via a 12-part series, entitled “A Minnesota Century.” This segment is the the story of a woman who had mixed success as a novelist but eventually found her voice in the character of Betsy, whose antics and adventures mirrored Maud's real-life childhood in Mankato at the turn of the century.
September 24, 1999 - September edition of MPR's Voices of Minnesota series, featuring St. John's University football coach John Gagliardi and music arranger Red McLeod (he arranged the Minnesota Rouser as a student, arranged 1812 overture for U of M band for conductor Eugene Ormandy, wrote for Whoopee John polka band).
September 22, 1999 - We're all digging a little deeper these days to gas up the car and grumbling about it. But researchers at the University of Minnesota say our out-of-pocket costs of owning and operating a vehicle - substantial as they are - are just part of the full cost. A new study being carried out by U researchers attempts to calculate the full cost and offer some suggestions for more equitable ways of funding road building in the Twin Cities.
September 14, 1999 - The people planning the proposed light rail transit line along Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis want to have most of the design questions answered by the end of the month. Later this year the plans go to the Federal Transit Commission where they join proposal from other cities also seeking federal funding for rail projects. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson recently discussed the design process with the head of the design team at the engineering firm.
August 25, 1999 - Our August edition of Voices of Minnesota features Mississippi River biologist Calvin Fremling on the 75th anniversary of the Upper Mississippi River Wildlife refuge.
August 20, 1999 - Housing advocates are cheering a decision to once again postpone demolition of public housing on Minneapolis ' near northside. Officials say they'll consider saving seventy units that remain from the hundreds demolished at two public housing projects. The demolition results from a housing discrimination lawsuit charging the city with concentrating poor people in one neighborhood. But advocates worry the postponement is a symbolic victory and doesn't solve the problem.
July 30, 1999 - This week on Morning Edition we've met crime fighting residents in Minneapolis ' Phillips neighborhood who created their own 'most wanted' list. Their crime fighting helped send crack-cocaine user and seller Aaron Steele to prison. Steele has served his time and is back in the Phillips neighborhood. He is one of more than 3000 inmates who will get out of prison this year in Minnesota. Experts say we are ill-prepared to help the ex-cons avoid committing a crime that will send them right back to jail.